All posts tagged Gun Control

“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” writers and producers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver said the rebooted superintelligent-simian series doesn’t necessarily have to be a trilogy, as expected — it could go on even longer.

“There’s a way to do it where there’s kind of a slow burn, and you can stop, you can slow down and explore one facet,” Silver said in a telephone interview with Speakeasy. Jaffa added: “We feel like it can be more than just another movie, but if that’s the way, we’re really happy with it.”

Still, the husband-and-wife team said it’s still too early to get into whatever plans there are for the next “Apes” film. Read More »

Just two weeks after actor and comedian Jim Carrey used Twitter to distance himself from his movie “Kick Ass 2,” he has posted a set of tweets aimed at assault rifle “fans” apologizing for some of his previous tweets in which he says he “called you names.” Carry didn’t cite specific times or tweets, but rather broadly apologized saying his name-calling was “inappropriate.”

Asslt rifle fans,I do not agree wth u,nor do I fear u but I do love u and I’m sorry tht in my outrage I called you names.That was wrong. 3^{

Last week, country singer Brad Paisley and rapper LL Cool J released a song called “Accidental Racist” that many critics slammed as simplistic and, maybe, accidentally racist as well. So of course, on yesterday’s “Saturday Night Live,” the cast made fun of them. After the jump, watch a clip, as well as some of the other standout moments from the show, which was hosted by Vince Vaughn and featured musical guest Miguel. Read More »

Welcome back to Glee! During our hiatus a few of the Glee cast members were in the media. Cory Monteith, who plays Finn Hudson, voluntarily entered rehab and will miss the last 2 episodes of the season. Therefore the show will have to be rewritten around Monteith’s absence. Montheith, 30 years old, was previously in rehab when he was 19, according to a 2011 interview. In happier news, Heather Morris, 26, who plays Brittany, is about 3 months pregnant with her first child. The father is her longtime boyfriend Taylor Hubbel.

This episode focuses only on McKinley and tackles a hot-button issue: school shootings. With the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings still fresh in our heads and the recent debates in Congress over gun-control laws, it seemed it was only a matter of time before “Glee” addressed this issue. Executive producer Ryan Murphy Tweeted last week that “Shooting Star” is “the most powerful, emotional Glee ever. However, given “Glee’s” track record of burying important storylines in the middle of silliness or addressing an important issue and then forgetting about it for several episodes (or forever), I wasn’t sure what to expect. “OneTree Hill” and “Degrassi” have earned praise for handling school shootings with careful and poignant writing, which many believe “Glee” lacks. I believe the show handled certain parts of this episode well and the actors who played the students and teachers conveyed fear and worry, but they surrounded the story with some unnecessary frivolity that took away from the seriousness. Read More »

Jim Carrey is taking aim at America’s raging debate over gun control in his new skit on “Funny or Die.” The clip, titled “Cold Dead Hand with Jim Carrey” pokes fun at the anti-gun control crowd with a parody of Charlton Heston and “Hee Haw.” Heston, a gun enthusiast and second amendment activist , died in 2008.

Singer Morrissey is blasting Jimmy Kimmel‘s jokes about his refusal to appear on a recent show. In a statement, Morrissey wrote, “I was disappointed with last night’s Jimmy Kimmel Show wherein our smiling host managed to ridicule depression (70% of Americans have experienced depression according to the National Institute of Mental Health). He then found time to ridicule healthy eating (the obesity epidemic in the U.S. costs $147 billion per year in medical expenditure), and he also ridiculed the notion that animals should be entitled to the possession of their own lives. “ He continues, “Furthermore, he found time to jokingly promote gun-ownership – hugely amusing for the parents at Sandy Hook, no doubt. He also promoted his special guests Duck Dynasty – who kill beings for fun. None of the above issues are, of course, as important as Jimmy Kimmel himself, who has finally revealed his show to have an overwhelming loss of meaning. Tune in and relive the intellectual fog of the 1950s.” The former frontman for the Smiths, a staunch supporter of animals rights, had earlier this week refused to appear on an episode of “Kimmel” that included an appearance by the cast of “Duck Dynasty,” an A&E show that follows a family that became wealthy by operating a business that sells products to duck hunters. A Morrissey representative told Speakeasy “there are no current plans to revisit the booking on Jimmy Kimmel Live.” A Kimmel representative confirmed that the comic tweeted this reply to the singer: “note to Morrissey – if you have more dumb statements to make, I invite you to make them where I do, on my show.” Read More »

When President Barack Obama recently revealed in an interview in the New Republic that he goes skeet shooting at Camp David “all the time,” some members of the media wanted photos. Now they have one.

White House Senior Adviser Dan Pfeiffer tweeted out this photo today of the President skeet shooting. The tweet read “For all the “skeeters”: POTUS shoots clay targets on the range at Camp David on Aug. 4, 2012.” with a link.

When President Barack Obama recently revealed in an interview in the New Republic that he goes skeet shooting at Camp David “all the time,” some members of the media wanted to know more. How often does the president really do it? And are there any pictures? Jon Stewart took a look at the matter on “The Daily Show.”

At halftime of NBC’s Sunday Night Football last year, sports commentator Bob Costas addressed the topic of gun culture, and was drawn into a fiery debate. Costas addressed the issue again on “The Daily Show” and also waded into the growing controversy over football and safety. “Guns are glorified in hip hop culture,” Costas says at one point. “Some 70 percent of the players in the NFL are African American. Not all of them are influenced by that part of the culture, but some of them are.” Costas is a smart guy, but, for the record, hip-hop culture’s influence is now global and has been for decades, and isn’t just limited to the African-American community. And guns have been glorified in other music forms too, including country, blues and pop. Some of the songs that casual listeners may see as celebrating firearms, like “Me and My Girlfriend” by Tupac Shakur or “Saturday Night Special” by Conway Twitty, are often doing something more complex. Anyway, watch the clips of Costas’ comments after the jump. What do you think? Read More »

Earlier this week, President Barack Obama asked Congress to approve $10 million in funding for the Center for Disease Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to conduct new research into the effect “violent video games have on young minds.” Speakeasy has now learned from a senior health official at the CDC that “video games are just one component” of a research agenda drafted in response to Obama’s request.

Furthermore, the CDC senior official said that the organization would work with “external experts,” perhaps because of its lack of experience in the field. (Video game researcher Christopher Ferguson had suggested the CDC would likely make such a move in an earlier interview with Speakeasy.) The CDC wouldn’t comment on how long the proposed study would be expected to take, but the new funding is being proposed for the 2014 fiscal year and Ferguson estimates that any proper longitudinal study would take an additional two to three years.

About Speakeasy

Speakeasy is a blog covering media, entertainment, celebrity and the arts. The publication is produced by Barbara Chai and Jonathan Welsh with contributions from the Wall Street Journal staff and others. Write to us at speakeasy@wsj.com or follow us on Twitter at @WSJSpeakeasy or individually @barbarachai.